Had my mill built for a few years (as you can see by the old feet), never got around to really using it. Recently downsized it from 3’ to 2’ so I could build an enclosure and sound-proof as much as possible. Replaced the Mini RAMBO + CNCJS Pi with a Duet 2 Ethernet to make my life easier too. Ever since I moved my printer over, I just can’t accept 8-bit boards anymore.
Currently working on building an enclosure out of MDF. The ideal outcome being apartment-friendly, but I know that’s a lot to ask for.
I’ve been considering this move as well and just now starting to research the differences - what have you discovered in terms of print quality differences and what performance enhancements a 16-bit controller would offer our MPCNCs/LRs etc?
I know the board I got has a higher current stepper motor driver, although I mostly moved over to just work with g-code and not have to mess around with Octoprint and Marlin compiling all day. Better yet, not having to touch the extremely finicky stepper motor drivers. While the stepper motor drivers on my 8-bit board would be scorching hot from a cartesian print, my printer board doesn’t heat up at all when I do long corexy prints. That along is a pretty big difference to me.
Well, that complaint is mostly around my RAMPS. For the RAMBO, I just found it being a bother to change the configuration.h in Marlin for everything when I can now handle it through G-Code at run-time and macros.
After all of this time, I’ve finally got it running! Mandatory crash run on the left, successful cut on the right. I can’t tell the back panel to the MP3DP is meant to be this small or if I scaled it wrong. Either way, it feels good to get that first successful job done.
Oh, and the next print I do is definitely a sawdust boot. So much…
Can you cut some pins and holes and then cut it halfway, and move it to another set of holes and finish it up? Or maybe cut everything but the top edge and cut that on a straight saw? MP3DP is a fun project.
I thought about it, was unsure about the stability of the frame after though. I could definitely split it into three and design some 3D printed brackets for it though!
I was thinking just hanging the board out the side while you milled one side, then moved it and cut the second side. You would still end up with one piece.
FWIW, the frame doesn’t have to be too strong. There aren’t strong forces on it.
